Indian tuna fishery - production trend during yesteryears and scope for the future

Abdussamad, E M and Rao, G Syda and Koya, K P Said and Rohit, Prathibha and Joshi, K K and Sivadas, M and Kuriakose, Somy and Ghosh, Shubhadeep and Jasmine, S and Chellappan, Anulekshmi and Koya, Mohammed (2012) Indian tuna fishery - production trend during yesteryears and scope for the future. Indian Journal of Fisheries, 59 (3). pp. 1-13.

Abstract

Fishery for tuna and tuna like fishes in the country has been in vogue from time immemorial and presently involves fishery
by coastal based fleets of varying specifications with different craft-gear combinations and longline fishery by large oceanic
fishing vessels. The former undertakes short duration fishing trips and exploit mainly surface tunas in the outer shelf and
adjacent oceanic waters. The tuna landings though nominal during 1950-2005, registered a continuous increase over the
years from a minimum of 848 t (1951) to 46,334 t (2000). With the introduction of targeted fishing for oceanic tunas during
2005-‘06, the landings improved and reached the maximum of 129,801 t in 2008. The fishery was supported by nine species,
five coastal/neritic species and four oceanic species. Coastal tunas formed 57% of the tuna catch during 2006-’10 and was
represented by the little tuna (Euthynnus affinis), frigate tuna (Auxis thazard), bullet tuna (Auxis rochei), longtail tuna (Thunnus
tonggol) and bonito (Sarda orientalis). The oceanic species, which formed 43% of tuna catch, were yellowfin tuna (Thunnus
albacares), skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), dogtooth tuna (Gymnosarda unicolor) and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus).
Information collected from different sources suggested that longliners operating in Indian EEZ and adjacent international
waters caught around 87,000 t of tuna annually during 2006-'10. Catch was supported by three species dominated by
yellowfin tuna and small proportion of big-eye and dogtooth tuna. Since fishery by coastal based units restricted to small
areas and share of the catch by longliners from EEZ are not clearly known, systematic assessment of tuna stock in Indian
EEZ is very difficult. However, the evaluation of the fishery scenario indicated only limited scope for improving tuna
production from certain areas of coastal waters; whereas enormous scope remain for increasing tuna production from the
oceanic waters of EEZ. However, since tunas being straddling resources shared by several nations, exploitation at one area
will influence the fishery in other areas.